Close friend and occasional Nintendo Life contributor Tyler Esposito is at it again - he's followed up on the Christmas video which saw him tearing off the wrapping to his shiny new NES back in 1989 with a birthday clip which shows just how popular Tim Burton's Batman movie was at the time.
Esposito sets the scene with plenty of Batman-related merchandise - ranging from breakfast cereal to tablecloths - and points out that back then, his four-year-old younger self wanted nothing more than to get his tiny little hands on Sunsoft's official Batman video game.
Tension builds as the fresh-faced youngster - dressed in what he freely admits was the worst outfit his mother ever forced upon him - stalks the room, waiting expectantly for the moment when he'd get to open his presents. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy is quickly cast aside as the smaller, NES game-sized packages are produced, and Esposito is initially wrong-footed by a copy of the superb DuckTales.
However, Batman comes next - with predictable feelings of jubilation - before Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom arrives to really stink things up. As is the case with all of Esposito's excellent videos, it's a nostalgic trip down memory lane that we can all relate to - don't forget to subscribe to his excellent iRetrogamer channel for more videos like this one.
Comments 29
Truly we were blessed. as Video games go, the saying "less is more" certainly remains true, despite younger players will just point up at me and laugh it off and accuse moi of wearing nostalgia tinted glasses.
"Where does he get those wonderful toys? "
Haha, reading this article and reliving the video through your words was a trip! Thanks for the article Damien!
Oh, this takes me back. The NES is still my favorite Christmas present ever. But, this kid racked up for his birthday - three games!? Wow. I was happy with one game that I spent my birthday money on. I still remember dragging my dad to a Sears 30 minutes away from our house because they were the only ones who had a copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 in stock at the time.
If I was that kid I'd scream "Indiana Jones!". I loved Indy (and still do).
@RetroTyGuy No worries! The reaction to Indy is priceless
Wow, lucky kid! I'm 30, and I'm with the above comments. We didn't need update patches and tons of DLC, or the same Call of Duty over and over. There were still bad games, that could've used some of that stuff. More than likely, however, you would get something like Super Mario World or Turtles in Time, and just replay it... Over. And over. And over. 25 years later. Still playing it.
@JDig I'm getting close to that age. That's right younglings. No Season Pass, no DLC, the game had to actually come complete right off the box. No casual, free-to-play. Multiplayer was a 2 player affiar in the living room and in some cases 4 or 5 players.Everything was so limited that both game developers and players had to use a lot of imagination and clever ways to deliver what you have today taken for granted. Old man rant: off.
@Shiryu I'm right there with you.
@MajinCubyan Yes, we won so much thanks to technology advances... but we lost oh so much more thanks to the "growth explosion" of the video game industry and its audience, it is becoming really hard to keep things together nowadays.
This video put a stupid grin on my face this morning making me think back to one of my favorite Christmas's growing up. I had spent the entire summer mowing yards to save up enough money to buy my NES but after all that hard work, I only had enough for the system. No extra games. In a world where the only "fix" you could get for video gaming aside from the actual games themselves were the colorful magazines on the shelves, only having Mario/Duck Hunt wasn't much. But after a few months, that Christmas I received three classics. Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Super Mario Bros. 2. I just remember staring at them for what seemed an eternity to make it through Christmas Dinner and the usual family proceedings until I could rip them open and play.
I agree with all the other "old" gamers above. I feel like kids today take for granted a world full of gaming where more truly is less. I'm so grateful to have grown up through the birth of the gaming era. To have lived in a time when less was actually more really makes me appreciate what all there is to choose from today. This video is a testament to that.
And to how much the Indiana Jones game sucked. Come on.. the four year old even knew it. LOL
I think I'm just one year older than the guy making the video, so this was very nostalgic for me! What a magical time.
All that stuff for a birthday?? What a spoiled kid! Haha. Awesome though.
@Shiryu @JDig You do realize that nobody registered on this site is that young or modernized, right? So in that case, you're talking to air.
All stupidity aside though, I'm sad to see that all the attention is going toward the 80's and 90's. The 000's had the same stuff, just with updated things! What about the GameCube? It could be a modern NES! No DLC, updates, or anything else, it was just one game disc, and an enormous chunk of it's library had good games!
I don't see what's different!
…Sigh, maybe my generation needs to grow up more, first.
@Porpoise I hope not, else all my hard working Super Famicom reviews and retro features are being ignored! Y_Y
@Shiryu I'm sure they aren't.
@JDig I hope so.
I wish I had videos of my childhood, to relive moments like this...but sadly, we never owned a video camera. My aunt had one, but we rarely saw her very much...especially after I was ten or so (moving does that).
That batman game was somewhat decent. I remember being 6 years old with the neighbor boy jumping up and down on my parents' bed to wake up my dad to take us to the Saturday early matinee to watch Batman (5 hours ahead of showtime). My dad was not too happy about it
Oh my god actual birthday suits. I remember when moms would force their kids in these for every single special event. I'm sure they still do to a way lesser extend. Like as if you're showing your kid is nice and dresses good. You're nasty little slob child probably got bored with these games a few minutes after opening it just like kids always do.
Dumb kid doesn't know how to appreciate a Ninja Turtle... LOL j/k
I loved the DOS version of Batman Returns as a kid, I still have the box and seven floppy disks it came in, those games and films made me a big batman fan til this day.
I miss being a kid...
@Porpoise I was a GCN kid myself growing up. My fondest memories are of me playing Super Mario Sunshine, Pac-Man World 2, Wario World, SSB Melee, and Mario Party 6 on our silver GameCube. Great memories.
I wish my parents had filmed more of my reactions. I remember them of course but I would love to see my 10 year old self when I got my first Buzz Lightyear (who went to college with me and is still on a book shelf with fresh batteries) or when I got my N64 and Mario 64 or my sega genesis. All great memories and I remember spazzing the heck out would be fun to watch for a giggle.
@Jetset Tell me about it. Funnily enough though, I never got a GameCube until Christmas 2013, (because I was already growing up with the Wii, particularly with Mario Kart Wii, from Christmas 2009), when I started to pick my own gifts. I only really grew up with the GC through some occasional visits to the dentist's office, McDonalds, and some real estate place at Disney, through 2004-2008, maybe. That, and Super Mario Sunshine through the Wii, because I thought the entire idea of the game was brilliant at the time, a few ads on the internet in the 2000's for SSBM, back when I was huge into playing crappy flash games. (BumArcade specifically.) Really young too. Man I still remember when I first opened my Platinum 'Cube in X-Mas '13, being pleasantly surprised at finding Madden '06 in the disc compartment, which the Amazon description did not specify was there. I also got my first TV, which was a CRT, at the same time too… …Wow, most of Late 2013 - Early 2014 memories seem like they should have taken place much earlier… Good time to be 12 though, even though that was 2 years ago. …Huh.
Anyway, yeah, I'm sure nobody wants to hear this, and it's probably unintelligible now. Good fun though.
I just love these video brings back so many memories and brings tears too my eyes magical times.
It is truly different to be a young gamer in the last 5-10 years. The ascent of video games as a mainstream form of entertainment from virtually nothing to a huge industry is done.
It's fascinating to me to see entertainment fracture further and further into niche genres or niche groups, or niche markets.
The numbers are higher than ever, but for the most part every kid has completely different experiences with video games.
Not judging it. Just noticing how different it is.
It's also a nice reminder why having a site like this is so great. It gathers people with a shared experience.
Nintendo's truest fans are all in their 30's now.
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